


You've Got Something I Need

by thecivilunrest



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Drunk Dialing, Emotional Constipation, F/M, Feeeeeeeeeeeeelings, Friends With Benefits, Friends to Lovers, Future Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-31
Updated: 2014-01-31
Packaged: 2018-01-10 16:42:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,512
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1162068
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thecivilunrest/pseuds/thecivilunrest
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's just that feelings are hard and words are harder.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You've Got Something I Need

**Author's Note:**

> Based on the poem "8 Ways To Say I Love You" which can be found [here](http://matsuohka.tumblr.com/post/75136301092/8-ways-to-say-i-love-you-1-spit-it-into-her). I don't know how this happened.

**(1)** _Spit it into her voicemail, a little slurred and sounding like the shot whiskey you downed for courage. Feel as ashamed as you do walking into work in last night’s clothes. Wake up cringing for days, waiting for her to mention it._

Satsuki has driven Daiki crazy for a long, long time. This is a result of their lifelong friendship more than anything else--who else would he have tolerated driving him crazy for this long? Who else would he have allowed to stand beside him, despite the fact that they annoyed him to no end?

Who else would he be sitting at the bar thinking about, glass of whiskey in hand? 

_This is fucking pathetic,_ he thinks to himself, but he doesn’t bother moving except to gulp down the whiskey in one go. “Another,” he tells the barkeeper, who raises his eyebrows but otherwise doesn’t comment. 

“What the hell’s wrong with you?” Kagami asks from behind him, clapping Daiki’s shoulder and making him jump. 

“Fuck off.” 

“You’re the one that invited me here,” Kagami says, his voice hardening with irritation. 

“Because you’re the only one that can keep up with me,” Daiki replies. The urge hits him suddenly--he wants to get drunk, the sort of drunk that leaves him struggling to walk. The kind of drunk that makes him forget about Satsuki’s smile and the way that she seems to look at everyone but him. “Or, well, you can try.” 

There’s a challenge in his tone and, true to form, Kagami responds. “You’re on,” he says, despite the fact that they both have practice in the morning. 

 

“I think I love Satsuki,” Daiki admits later, almost tripping over the crack in the sidewalk that currently looks more like a canyon. Things are very distorted from the alcohol, and his words sound more slurred than they should. They probably shouldn’t have drank so much. 

Kagami snorts. “I think you should tell her that then,” he says. 

“Tell her...” Daiki trails off, grabbing Kagami’s shoulder so that he can stand up straight. “Yeah, I should tell her. You’re actually right for once. Good job, Bakagmi.” It takes a few attempts to get his phone out of his pocket, but when he does he manages to type in Satsuki’s number no problem. 

Her phone is off, but of course it is, since it is currently 2.30 in the morning and there is practice that she has to be at too in only four hours.”Hullo,” he says even though he won’t get a response. It seems like the right thing to say. “How’re you?” 

Beside him Kagami is laughing, trying not step into any questionable puddles while he pulls them along. This is far more difficult than it sounds, especially since Daiki is on the phone, and he doesn’t know what he’s just stepped in but he also doesn’t care. He clears his throat, shooting Kagami a glare that he can’t see in the dark. “Anyway, I just want to tell you that I love you and that I’ve always loved you. And I probably always will. You’ve fucked me up, Satsuki.” 

He finds that he can’t imagine what her face would look like in reaction to his words, and that bothers him. He wants all of her, even this. “So anyway-” he says, but then he drops his phone and it clatters to the sidewalk, effectively ending the call. 

“That was the lamest confession I have ever heard,” Kagami tells him from where he’s standing, and Daiki tries to punch him. He misses. 

 

The next morning is absolute _death_ and Daiki has never wished for anything more than not to have to go to practice. But he would be absolutely murdered if he skipped this close to a game and so he somehow manages to get dressed and get to practice, all the while wanting to die. 

All the guys give him shit in the locker room, but when he snarls at them to shut up they actually do. Even Kagami, who manages not to look like a pile of shit warmed up. Daiki hates him a little for that. 

When he finally gets to the gym Satsuki is sitting on her fold up chair, phone and clipboard in hand. “You look like _you_ had fun last night, Aomine-kun,” she tells him, looking him up and down, judgement written across her face. The knuckles of the hand around her phone are white. “I’m going to go tell coach to make sure to do drills that include lots of whistle blowing.” 

She gets up to walk away, and Daiki watches her walk away. This is just his luck. 

 

 **(2)** _Sigh it into her mouth, wedged in between teeth and tongues. Don’t even let your lips move when you say it, ever so lightly, into the air. Maybe it was just an exhalation of ecstasy._

If you had told Daiki just a month ago that he would be having sex with Satsuki he would have laughed in your face. 

And yet here he is, her bare breasts in his hand, kissing her. She’s on top of him--because of course she is--and her tongue curls with his as she sinks down on him over and over again. 

Satsuki’s fingernails dig into his shoulders, and he can feel her fluttering around him, getting close to coming. He thrusts just as she sinks down again and she screams, finally coming with a cry. Her fingernails dig deep enough to draw blood as he comes just after her, biting the inside of his cheek to keep from crying out. 

Satsuki smiles as she climbs off him. “That was a good one today. We’re getting better at this, aren’t we?” she asks, leaning down to kiss him again. She always kisses him one last time after they come before she leaves. 

Daiki wishes that he could ask her to stay. 

Her lips are soft on his and he thinks, like a total sap, like some shoujo hero in the manga that Satsuki sometimes reads, _I love you._

She goes still for just a moment, before pulling away. The smile she gives him as she puts on her clothes is a bit forced, but he only notices because they’ve known each other for so long. He wouldn’t have been able to tell with any other girl. 

It’s only later that Daiki realizes that he didn’t just think it. 

 

 **(3)** _Buy her flowers. Buy her chocolate. Buy her a teddy bear, because that’s what every romantic comedy has taught you. Take her out to a nice restaurant where neither of you feel comfortable and spend the whole night clearing your throat and tugging at your tie. Feel like your actions are more suited to a proposal than the simple confession of something you’ve always known._

Daiki knows that asking Kise for help was a mistake the moment that the words came out of his mouth. 

“Ooh, Aominecchi,” Kise says, his amber eyes glittering. Daiki’s stomach plummets. “Are you actually trying to do something sweet for our lovely Momoicchi?” 

“Shut up and help me,” Daiki responds, making Kise’s smile grow wider. 

“You have to do everything that I say. Swear it,” he demands. 

Daiki takes a deep breath, trying not to lose his temper. This is for Satsuki, he reminds himself. So much of their dating has been unromantic and unconventional that he wants to do something right for once. 

“I swear,” he says. 

 

“Fucking Kise,” he mutters. 

“What was that?” Satsuki asks over the giant stuffed bear that Kise had picked out for her. 

“Remember how much she liked the stuffed ghost that Kuroko got her?” Kise had asked. 

“When we were _thirteen_ ,” Daiki had argued. 

“Everything I say,” Kise reminded him. Daiki bought the damn bear. 

“Nothing. Our stop’s coming up.” 

“Okay!” Satsuki says. She only sounds a little confused, the same way that her face had been when Daiki had shown up to her apartment with a stuffed animal in hand. 

Kise had pulled a lot of model strings to get them reservations at a restaurant like this on such short notice he assured Daiki. Daiki was just glad that he had done right by telling Satsuki to dress up. 

“Reservations for Aomine,” Daiki tells the waitress at the front and she leads them to the table directly underneath a crystal chandelier. The glass glitters on Satsuki’s face prettily as she smiles. 

The bear ends up needing its own chair, since it is too big to leave on the ground. Daiki can feel it judging every move that he makes, almost like a chaperone. The next time he sees Kise, the blond is getting a beating. 

They are on their second course when Satsuki finally looks up. “Is there some occasion for all of this?” she finally asks. “I keep going through everything, but unless I forgot something-”

“You’re not,” Daiki cuts her off before she can get going. 

“Then what’s the occasion for all of this?” She waves her hand towards the bear and the chandelier and the glass of wine in front of her. 

He heaves a sigh. It’s better to admit everything now. “I wanted to tell you that I loved you. But I wanted to do it right, in the way that you see in all those dramas that you watch, so I asked Kise. And now we’re here and we look stupid because of course Kise has no shame.”

“You didn’t have to ‘do it right,’” Satsuki says suddenly. “I would have been fine if you’d just said it holding my hand. There was no reason to get me a bear. And besides, I already knew.”

“You did?”

“You can’t hide things from me, Dai-chan,” she says. “There’s no point in trying. I’ll always know.” 

 

Later that night Satsuki finds a little girl to give the bear to, and the little girl shrieks in joy before running to her parents. And when Daiki tells her that he loves her--the right way, _their_ way--he’s holding her hand. 

 

 **(4)** _Whisper it into her hair in the middle of the night, after you’ve counted the space between her breaths and are certain she’s asleep. Shut your eyes quickly when she shifts toward you in askance. Maybe you were just sleep whispering._

Satsuki sleeps on her stomach. It’s something that Daiki’s always known, but managed to forget until she ended up in his bed, hogging his blankets, because she also does that when she sleeps. He would just get two comforters and be done with it, since he is a cover hog too, but he’d rather fight with her and wake up tangled up in her the next morning. 

“I love you,” he whispers to her one night. She had fallen asleep hours ago, still in her work suit and heels, exhausted. 

Daiki had to take her heels off for her, because she refused to. “I’m too tired, Dai-chan,” she had told him. 

Her eyelashes flutter, but otherwise doesn’t move, so Daiki leans in and kisses her forehead before going back to the case file he had been reviewing. One day he might be able to tell her when she isn’t asleep, but that day isn’t today.

 

 **(5)** _Blurt it out in the middle of an impromptu dance party in the kitchen, as clumsy as your two left feet. When time seems to freeze, hastily tack on “in that shirt” or “when you make your award-winning meatballs” or, if you are feeling particularly brave, “when we do this.” Resume dancing and pretend you don’t feel her eyes on you the rest of the night._

She’s blasting the radio in the kitchen when he comes home. “Come on, Dai-chan,” she calls for him, happiness bright on her face as she grabs his hand, “dance with me.” 

The music is really too fast for the kind of dancing that Satsuki wants to do, but somehow they make it work. He steps on her feet a few times, wincing as he does so, but she only laughs and tells him, “I know you are more graceful than _that_. Show me your moves, Dai-chan.” 

For not the first time Daiki notices just how much brighter his apartment is when she’s here, even though she really only comes to practice her cooking and nothing more. 

The song soon changes into something slower, more natural with the close style of dance that Satsuki had pulled him into earlier. She places her head on his chest and he grips her hands tighter. “I love-” he begins, but freezes when she looks up at him. He wishes he could confess to her, but even after all this time he finds the words get stuck in his mouth. It’s just that feelings are hard, but words are harder, “this song,” he finishes lamely. 

Satsuki stops looking at him, putting her head back on his chest. “Oh,” she says, and nothing else. When the song finishes, she pulls away. 

 

 **(6)** _Write her a letter in which the amount of circumnavigating and angst could rival Mr. Darcy’s. Debate where to leave it all day – on her pillow? In her coat pocket? Throw it away in frustration, conveniently leaving it face up in the trashcan, her name scrawled on the front in your sloppy handwriting. Let her wonder if you meant it._

Daiki has never been good at writing. While Japanese and English weren’t his worst subjects, they certainly weren’t his best. And yet he finds himself trying to write a note to Satsuki. This is one of Kuroko’s ideas--”She’ll be able to keep it,” Kuroko had reasoned. “That should be enough.”--and yet he finds that he doesn’t know what to say. 

He can’t be sappy. He’d rather chew on glass than be disgusting about his feelings, and besides, saccharine words aren’t for the two of them. He tells her sweet things sometimes, because she deserves them, but that’s different and mostly in bed. 

This is important. This will be the first time that he will have seen Satsuki in the month that she’s been away for her job, even though he won’t be able to welcome her home properly since he has a shift on the station that he couldn’t get out of. 

_Satsuki, it’s nice to have you home again. I’ve missed you..._

No, too lame. 

_Dear Satsuki, I know you already know that I can’t be here when you get here and I’m sorry, but not as sorry as you I bet, and well-_

Fucking stupid, and he keeps repeating himself like an idiot. 

_I can’t wait until I see you tonight. Don’t go to sleep. I’ll try to be back as soon as I can and then we can-_

No. Satsuki won’t appreciate that, even though it’s true. If Satsuki’s not too tired they’re going to have sex until the sun comes up the next morning, like they had the last time that she’d been away. 

In the end he just writes _Satsuki, I love you. See you soon, Daiki_ since that’s the most important thing. 

 

 **(7)** _Wait until something terrible has happened and you can’t not tell her anymore. Wait until she almost gets hit by a car crossing Wabash against the light and after you are done cursing at the shit-for-brains cab drivers in this city, realize you are actually just terrified of living without her. Tell her with your hands shaking._

Daiki has just gotten off of work when he gets the call. His hair is still wet from the shower that he just took and he’s looking forward to eating leftovers on the couch next to Satsuki while she watches the newest episode of that drama that she loves. Tonight is supposed to be simple, easy. 

He doesn’t think anything of it when his phone shows that Mrs. Momoi is calling him. They’re planning on having a surprise party for Satsuki, and he figures that it is just more of the same. But when he answers Mrs. Momoi starts babbling immediately, and he can’t understand what she’s saying. 

“Wait, Auntie, I can’t understand what you’re saying.” 

“Satsuki’s in the hospital, Dai-chan,” is all that Daiki hears before the world is nothing but white noise. 

 

Daiki runs all the way to the hospital without thinking, and he stops the first nurse that he sees. “Momoi Satsuki,” he says. “Where is she? I need to see her.” 

The nurse raises both her eyebrows at his distress. “She’s in room 506. Calm yourself down, and try not to upset her.” 

Daiki takes a deep breath in an attempt to do what the nurse says, but he’s not entirely sure that it works. Instead he just walks to Satsuki’s room, pausing in the doorway. Both Mr. and Mrs. Momoi are hovering around her, obviously having gotten the call first. 

But when Satsuki sees him she calls out, “Dai-chan,” and holds out her arms. Her face crumbles when he finally reaches her, wrapping his arms around her. She’s so incredibly small and fragile--how has he never realized that? 

Satsuki cries into his shoulder, big, ugly sobs. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,” she keeps telling him, and he doesn’t understand why. She can’t hold him back, there are too many wires in her arms, but Daiki holds her enough for the both of them. 

“I love you, I love you,” he repeats to her quietly, over and over again. He can’t believe he ever hesitated over the words. “Marry me. Marry me so that next time something like this happens I’ll get the call first.” 

“Okay,” she promises, pressing her face against his damp neck. Daiki holds her even more tightly after that, and he doesn’t want to let her go. 

 

 **(8)** _Say it deliberately, your tongue a springboard for every syllable. Over coffee, brushing your teeth side-by-side, as you turn off the light to go to sleep – it doesn’t matter where. Do not adorn it with extra words like “I think” or “I might.” Do not sigh heavily as if admitting it were a burden instead of the most joyous thing you’ve ever done. Look her in the eyes and pray, heart thumping wildly, that she will turn to you and say, “I love you too.”_

Daiki has lost count of the number of girls that have confessed to him. It’s a terrible thing to think, but it’s true--he honestly cannot remember them all. They blur together in his mind, one rejection after another. 

At first he rejected them out of respect for the women in his favorite porn magazines, preferring them to the flat chested middle school girls that always seemed to love him. After that it was for another woman all together--a real one this time. 

Too real, sometimes. Unlike the chicks in porn mags, Satsuki nagged at him, reminded him to get to class and never shared her math homework answers no matter how much he whined. But unlike porn models, Satsuki also stood beside him, and she smiled at him, and he could touch her.

He wasn’t sure when he realized that he loved Satsuki, nor could he pinpoint a moment in time when it became clear that he loved her. He just always had. Probably always would. 

Daiki would laugh, if this happened to anyone else. 

 

 

At the corner of the courtyard at Touou there was a towering oak tree that had heard hundreds of love confessions. It was large enough that even in the bright sun of noon there was always shade, the leaves tight enough together that hardly any sun leaked through. 

Despite that no one sat there unless they were hearing someone tell them that they loved them for the first time. 

This tree was the place that Daiki is going to confess to Satsuki. He has been building to this moment for weeks, unsure how else to do it. He wants this to matter--he wants to matter to her, in ways other than her childhood friend or the guy that she puts up with all the time. 

“Eat lunch with me,” he tells her one day after finally gathering up all of his courage reserves. He picks up her bento and starts to walk. 

“Hey!” Satsuki calls. “Give that back.” 

“Just eat with me,” he says, leading her outside. No one else is at the confession tree, thank God. 

“What do you think you’re doing, it’s _hot today_. I don’t want to eat outside.” Her complaints eventually trail off when she realizes where he’s taken her. “Why are we here?” she asks, her voice small. 

Daiki decides to just say it. 

“I love you,” he tells her. 

For a single, horrible moment, there is nothing but silence and Daiki thinks that he has fucked this up, that he shouldn’t have told her after all. 

And then she speaks. “I love you too,” she says, and Daiki can hear his heart give a relieved _ba-thump._

He smiles at her and she smiles back, hers twice as bright.


End file.
